Documents / Official release
This file, held under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration title, contains an English translation of the 1999 COMETA report "UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?", produced by a French association of former IHEDN auditors and first published in a special issue of VSD. It opens with a 2001 letter from Carol Rosin arranging a meeting. The report covers pilot testimonies, close encounters in France, GEPAN/SEPRA research and defense implications. Attached material includes a Leslie Kean article, a NARCAP description and a news item about a UFO at Barnaul airport.
From the source: Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A. Released with redactions. NARA Record Group 255, catalogue id 413270. This file contains an independent report on UFOs written by the French association COMETA (previously published in the French magazine VDS in 1999), which details the results of a study by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence. The file also includes a letter from Carol Rosin in which she notes that she was spokesperson for von Braun during the last years of his life.
, I by Denis Letty, Air Force General, 2nd Section, AA (35) I The accumulation of well-documented sightings made by credible witnesses forces us to consider from now on all of the hypotheses regarding the origin ofunidentifiedflying objects, or UFOs, and the extraterrestrial hypothesis, in particular. UFOs are now a part I ofour media environment; the films, television broadcasts, books, advertisements, etc., dealing with UFOs amply demonstrate this. Although no characterized threat has been perceived to date in France, it seemed I necessary to the former auditors of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale (IHEDN) to take stock of the subject. Along with qualified experts from extremely varied backgrounds, they are grouped together to forrn a private in-depth fact-finding committee, which was christened COMETA. I This committee was transformed into a COMETA association, which I chair. I would I like to thank General Bernard Norlain, former director of IHEDN, and Mr. Andre Lebeau, former chairman of the Centre National d' Etudes Spatiales, without whom COMETA would not have been born. I In addition, I wish to acknowledge the various people who agreed to give their testimony or to contribute to this study, and namely: Jean-Jacques Velasco, Head of SEPRA at CNES, Fran~ois Louange, ChiefExecutive Officer of Flex.image, , Jean-Charles Duboc, Jean-Pierre Fartek, Rene Giraud, civilian and military I pilots, Edmond Campagnac, former technical director of Air France at Antananarivo, Michel Perrier, Squadron Commander, Gendannerie Nationale I M. Soun, ofthe Direction Generale de !'Aviation Civile [Civil Aviation Agency] Joseph Domange, Air Force General, Auditors Association delegate general. I I must also thank the commander of the Afr Force Air Operations Command Center for its participation during the investigation into flight AF 3532 on January 28, 1994. I Among the members ofCOMETA who spared no effort for close to three years, it is possible for me to list: Michel Algrin, State Doctor of Political Science, attorney-at-law, AA (35), (1) I Pierre Bescond, Weapons Engineer General, 2nd Section, AA (48), Denis Blancher, Chief of Police, Police Nationale, Ministry of the Interior, Jean Dunglas, Doctor of Engineering (Ret.), in Water and Foredtry Management AR I (48) Bruno Le Moine, Air Force General, 2nd Section, AA (41 ), Fran~oise Lepine, Fondation pour Jes Etudes de Defense [Foundation for Defense I Studies], AA (33), Christian Marchal, Chief Mining Engineer, Research Director at ONERA I (National Aerospace Study and Research Office), Marc Merlo, Admiral, 2nd Section, AA (35), Alain Orszag, Doctor of Physical Sciences, Weapons Engineer General, 2nd Section. I I
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 94 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.